TRAIL RUNNING
The Tankwa Crossing
The R355 is the longest uninterrupted gravel road between two towns in South Africa , running 207.3km from near Calvinia to near Ceres as it crosses the semi-arid Tankwa Karoo . When avid trail runner and adventure junkie Hanno Langenhoven saw a picture of cyclists tackling this road , he just knew that it needed to be run , and that soon turned into the crazy idea of a single-stage desert crossing .
In January 2021 , Hanno and a small group of friends set out to see if it could be done . The lessons learnt were taken to heart and applied to the inuagural Tankwa Crossing event in February 2022 , which took place over the full moon weekend , featuring the full crossing as well as a 107km Half Crossing .
The 2003 event introduced a number of new events , to go with the original 207km and 107km races . A longer 200-miler was added , starting at the Letsatsi Wedding Venue and Lifestyle Lodge in Vanrhynsdorp , running east along the R27 to the junction with the R355 , just outside Calvinia , and then following the same 207km route to the south . Also new were the Alien 100 miler , and two shorter races , the Donkey Dash ( 42.2km ) and Baby Donkey ( 21.1km ), turning the Tankwa Crossing into a true celebration of desert running .
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